


Declaration

by hummerhouse



Category: Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (TV 2003)
Genre: Action/Adventure, Danger, M/M, Trapped, Turtlecest
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-02-14
Updated: 2017-02-14
Packaged: 2018-09-24 06:15:16
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,733
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9707021
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/hummerhouse/pseuds/hummerhouse
Summary: Disclaimer: The TMNT are not mine. No money being made.Word Count: 2,765 one shot 2k3Rated: PG-13 Contains turtlecest; TCestPairing: Raphael/LeonardoSummary: Often a dire situation can make someone speak the truth.~~A gift fic for FoxKid1302.  Happy Birthday! I meant to do fluff, but this insisted on being action filled.!!~~Winnerin the TMNT Universal Reader’s Choice Awards 2017: (Mature Ballot) Most Exciting Action/Adventure (tie) 2nd Place~~!!





	

**Author's Note:**

  * For [FoxKid1302](https://archiveofourown.org/users/FoxKid1302/gifts).



            “I don’t like it,” Raph repeated stubbornly as he glared at his oldest brother.

            “Yes Raph, you’ve already made that very clear,” Leo replied patiently, his eyes remaining fixed on the building across the street from their perch atop an adjacent building.  “What do you see, Donny?”

            Donatello was on his knees behind a roof parapet, his elbows propped on its top to steady the heavy thermal imaging lens he was peering through.  He glanced up at Leo who was standing next to him.

            “It looks like any other secured storage facility,” Don answered.  “A couple of night guards who take turns making rounds of the lower floors.  I’m not reading any other heat signatures.”

            “So not a trap right?” Mikey asked in a hopeful tone.

            “I still don’t like it,” Raph said.  “Why the hell are we here, Leo?  Little Miss Ninja should deal with her daddy issues and stop calling ya’ whenever she doesn’t like something he’s doing.”

            “It’s complicated,” Leo told him, not for the first time.  “Karai owes her life to Saki, she is honor bound to serve him.  As long as she helps us to thwart any of his schemes that would endanger lives, we have a duty to help her.”

            “I have to admit to having concerns over the way she delivered her request Leo,” Don said as he stood up. 

            “Yeah, not too sure a note attached to an arrow aimed at your head was her asking for our help or her just trying to skewer you,” Mikey said.

            “That note could have come from anybody,” Don added.

            “It was Karai’s voice on the phone,” Leo said.  “She verified that the note was hers.”

            “That call lasted about five seconds and it was all static before it was cut off,” Raph said.

            “Obviously she’s not where she can talk to us,” Leo said.  “Hence the note.”

            “It stinks,” Raph said flatly.  “Ya’ should have told her no.  She’s gonna keep sitting on the fence and not choosing sides if she knows you’re gonna always jump whenever she calls.  Dammit Leo, take off the blinders!  Ya’ wanna think she cares about ya’ but she don’t.”

            “Our helping her has nothing to do with how she might or might not feel about me,” Leo said firmly.  “Let’s go; the storage unit we want is on the fifth floor.  We can go in through the roof.”

            Leo accepted the crossbow that Don handed to him.  Taking careful aim, he shot a bolt downwards into the roof of the storage facility.  After tying off the end of a thick cable to a chimney atop the building they were on, the brothers walked across the cable to the opposite building.

            As Don pried open the grate over an air shaft, Raph grabbed Leo’s arm.  “Stop being Karai’s stooge,” he hissed.  “She can come and get the alien tech that’s supposed to be in that storage unit herself, just like Shredder ordered her to.  If it’s as dangerous as she thinks it is, she can drop it into the East river and tell him the unit was empty.”

            “Not if he’s sending Foot soldiers with her,” Leo said, twisting his arm out of Raph’s grasp.  “It would be better if she opened the unit and found it empty.”

            “I’m sick of fighting with ya’ about Karai,” Raph growled.  “She ain’t worried about what might happen to ya’, she’s only worried about herself.  Why are ya’ so stuck on her?”

            “I am not stuck on Karai,” Leo insisted, turning back to Don when his brother pulled the grate loose.  “Alarms?”

            “None here,” Don said.  “We can go in.”

            Taking the lead, Leo slid into the shaft first, followed by Mikey.  Before Raph could enter, Don stopped him.  “Why are you giving Leo such a hard time?” he asked.

            Raph grimaced.  “I’m sick of Karai calling the shots for him, I’m sick of being ignored ‘cause he’s so ate up with that bitch, and I’m tired of running her errands.  This doesn’t feel right and he ain’t listening to me ‘cause all of he can think about is Princess Karai.”

            “That sounds like jealousy,” Don said.

            “Fuck ya’ too,” Raph growled before diving into the shaft.

            Leo crawled through the shaft until he reached the very first exit point and after checking for cameras and guards, he kicked the grate loose and dropped to the floor.  A painted number on the wall at one end of a long corridor told the turtles that they were on the seventh floor.

            “Stairs,” Leo whispered, running swiftly over to the door leading to the staircase.  Opening the door just enough to peek through, he said, “No cameras.  We’ll take this down to the fifth floor.”

            “Ain’t this supposed to be a secured storage place?” Raph asked.  “Don’t it seem odd to anyone but me that there ain’t any cameras?”

            “Secured means they have guards,” Leo said.  “Karai’s note said the man who stored the alien tech didn’t know it had any value.”

            “Why do ya’ always gotta take everything she says as gospel?” Raph asked hoarsely.

            Leo didn’t bother to respond, going through the door without a backwards glance.  Raph could feel himself starting to reach his boiling point; anger and frustration vying for the top spot on his emotional scale.

            Raph indicated that Don and Mikey should go ahead of him, taking up the rear of the procession down the stairs to the fifth floor.  The building was incredibly quiet, too quiet in Raph’s opinion.  He kept it to himself though, too busy fuming internally over being sent to fetch like errand boys, or Karai’s pet dogs.

            They stepped into the corridor on the fifth floor and Raph automatically looked up, seeing that there were no security cameras or equipment of any kind in sight.  The building was basically a large square, with corridors running along the outer walls and storage units occupying the center of the space.

            “Which one is it?” Mikey asked.

            “Number five hundred twelve,” Leo said.  He looked at the unit nearest him which had the number five hundred stamped on it.  “The one we need must be around the corner.”

            As they traversed the corridor, Raph noted that each unit sported a padlock and that seemed to be the only theft control device employed.  It struck him as another oddity to add to a growing list, all of them making the back of his neck itch.

            The group make a left turn at the end of the corridor and after a few paces found the unit numbered five hundred twelve.  A flimsy looking aluminum panel which rolled up into the ceiling covered the entrance and it was held in place by a heavy duty padlock.

            Don studied the lock for a moment and then pulled his lock picking tools from his belt.  “This looks easy enough.”

            As he started on the lock, Leo said, “We’ll grab whatever’s inside, take it with us, and meet up with Karai later.”

            “Ya’ ain’t gonna give it to her are ya’?” Raph asked.  “I thought the plan was we destroy whatever it is.”

            “She needs to see it,” Leo told him.  “It’s the only way she’ll know for certain that Shredder was planning to kill people again.”

            “Why do ya’ insist on thinking she’s got some good in her?” Raph asked.  “How many times does she have to screw ya’ before ya’ realize she ain’t ever gonna actually screw ya’?”

            “That’s enough!” Leo said sharply.  “I don’t want to sleep with Karai.”

            “Sure ya’ don’t!” Raph snapped.  “I’ll tell ya’ what, do whatever floats your boat.  I’m out of here.”

            Spinning on his heel, he stormed off, turning the corner and heading straight for the stairs.  Behind him he heard the sound of the door rolling upwards and then footsteps.  Turning his head, Raph saw that Mikey had followed him.

            “Come on Raphie, don’t leave,” Mikey cajoled.  “If it’ll make you feel better, we can break that alien thingy before we take it out of here.”

            Raph opened his mouth to tell his brother to forget it, when a powerful bang echoed through the building, followed by a shout.

            “Raph!  Mikey!”  Don yelled, sounding frantic.

            Before Don had even finished calling his name, Raph was running at full tilt back to the storage unit where he’d left his brothers.  As he came around the corner, he saw Don pushing against a thick metal panel which now covered the entrance to the storage unit they’d broken into.

            “We got the door open and the unit was empty except for something up against the back wall,” Don said.  “Leo went in to get it and was halfway there when this panel slammed into place.”

            Raph squatted and attempted to get his fingers under the panel, but it was flush against the floor.  Meanwhile, Don was searching all around the panel and on the nearby walls for some kind of control mechanism.

            Standing, Raph used the side of his fist to pound on the panel.  “Leo!  Leo, can ya’ hear me?”

            “Raph?”  Leo’s muffled voice came through the panel.  “It was a trap.  I can’t get this panel open.”

            “Are there any controls on that side?” Don shouted.

            “No, there’s nothing,” Leo said.  “The equipment in the back is stamped with the EPF emblem.  It’s Bishop, not Karai who tricked us into coming here.”

            “Shit!” Raph yelled.  “Hang on, we’ll get ya’ out of there.”

            “If he shows up with his troops you’ll all be trapped!” Leo called.  “Get out of here!”

            “Hell no we won’t,” Raph told him.  Turning to Don, he said, “There has to be a way to open this panel from out here.”

            “I found it!” Mikey sang out.  At the other end of the corridor was something that appeared to be an ordinary fuse box, but when Don looked inside, he saw that it was actually an intricate locking mechanism for each of the units.

           “I’ve never seen anything like this,” Don admitted.  Digging into his duffel bag, he extracted some tools and started to work.  “I’m going to have to fly by the seat of my shell on this one.”

            Raph remained at the unit where Leo was trapped.  “Ya’ okay, Leo?  Don’s working on the lock.”

            “I’m such an idiot,” Leo said bitterly.  “Bishop knows we’ve helped Karai in the past, all he had to do was piece together some recordings of her voice asking for our help.”

            “Ya’ have to know she ain’t gonna ask us to help her anymore,” Raph said.  “We’ve made it damn clear we intend to destroy her old man first chance we get.”

            “I should have listened to you,” Leo said.

            Raph leaned his forehead against the panel that separated them.  “Yeah, ya’ should.  I’ll tell ya’ I told ya’ so when we get ya’ out of there.”

            Silence.  After a minute, Raph banged on the panel.  “Leo?  Ya’ okay?”

            “There’s some sort of gas . . . seeping in through the vents,” Leo said, his voice sounding odd.  “I . . . .”  Whatever he was going to say was cut off by a fit of coughing.

            “Leo!  Leo, get down low!  Get under the smoke!” Raph yelled, slamming his shoulder against the panel in an attempt to move it.  When it didn’t budge, he looked at his brothers.  “There’s gas flooding the room!  Get the damn panel open!”

            “I’m trying!” Don exclaimed.  “Every time I touch a circuit, it reroutes to another circuit.  That panel is solid steel, you can’t force it open!”

            “Leo!” Raph shouted.  “Leo!”

            By pressing his head against the panel, Raph could hear Leo coughing, and then the low rasp of his voice.  “Raph, take . . . Don . . . Mikey . . . get . . . .”

            “Not without you!”  Raph backed away from the panel and searched the walls all around it.  Then his eyes drifted up to the ceiling tiles.

            “Mikey, get your ass over here!” Raph yelled.  When Mikey reached him, Raph said, “If that panel starts to open, ya’ get in there to Leo as fast as ya’ can and pull him out.”

            “Where are you going?” Mikey asked.

            “I’m going up,” Raph said.

            “But those are solid . . . .” Mikey began.

            Before Mikey could finish the warning, Raph leaped upwards, using his carapace to crash through the foot thick wooden tiles lining the ceiling.  Sprawling flat so as not to fall back through, Raph inched forward until he was certain he was over the unit where Leo was trapped.

            Stabbing his sai into a tile, Raph lifted it out of the way and peered down into the unit.  Through the smoke he could just see Leo lying on the floor near the entrance.

            Pushing his mask down over his nostrils, Raph dropped into the unit and dashed over to Leo.  Wasting no time, he started to pick his brother up and then realized he couldn’t lift him back out through the ceiling.

            Whatever the smoke was, it was starting to make Raph feel light headed, despite the mask.  Looking around the room, he noticed that the walls, though made of metal, weren’t as thick as the panel at the entrance.

            Backing against one of the walls, Raph bellowed at the top of his lungs and charged the opposite wall, bunching his shoulders as he plowed into it.  The wall buckled beneath his bulk and Raph crashed through into the adjoining storage unit.

            Taking a deep breath of clean air, Raph went back to Leo and lifted him into his arms.  Carrying his brother, Raph approached the aluminum panel that guarded the unit and kicked the spot where the padlock was located.

            Mikey heard the sound and looked over in time to see the entire hasp fly loose.  He quickly grabbed the panel and shoved it upwards as Raph came barreling towards him.

            “Out!  Get out of this building now!” Raph roared as he ran for the staircase.

            Racing ahead of him, Mikey flung open the door so that Raph could carry Leo through.  From the corner of his eyes, Raph saw that Mikey and Don were following him as he sped up the stairs.

            Rather than bothering with the air shaft, Raph kicked open the roof top emergency door, no longer concerned with silence or avoiding alarms.  Once they were on the roof, he set Leo down, kneeling next to him and checking for a pulse.

            He found it, but Leo’s pulse was weak and he didn’t seem to be breathing.  Placing a hand over Leo’s nostrils, Raph used his other hand to tilt Leo’s head back until his lips opened and then began mouth to mouth resuscitation.

            Within a minute Leo shuddered and then jerked.  Lifting his head, Raph stared into his brother’s face as Leo gasped and started to cough.

            “What . . . happened?” Leo asked, still coughing.

            “Raph broke the walls to get to you,” Mikey said.

            “Broke . . . ?” Leo asked.

            “Hell, I’d bust down the whole building if I needed to,” Raph said.  “Don’t ya’ fucking scare me like that ever again, Leo.  I’ll stop bitching about how you’re in love with Karai if next time you’ll listen when I tell ya’ something don’t feel right.”

            “I’m not in love with Karai,” Leo whispered.  “I’m in love with you, hot head.”

            Raph froze, his eyes slowly widening as Leo’s words sunk in.  “Ya’ are?”

            “Yes,” Leo admitted.  “I have been for quite a while.  You’ve been so jealous of Karai that I didn’t know how to tell you.”

            “I was jealous ‘cause I was in love with ya’!” Raph exclaimed.  “Crap!  Ain’t we a pair of idiots?”

            “Could we discuss this back at the lair?” Don asked.

            “Yeah, before Bishop shows up to interrupt your declarations of love,” Mikey said, a big grin on his face.  “Though we’ve probably got a couple of minutes if you two want to smooch some more.”

            “That was the breath of life, not a kiss,” Raph said, glaring at his youngest brother as he helped Leo to his feet.

            “Then you still owe me one,” Leo said in a husky tone, standing close to Raph.

            A corner of Raph’s mouth lifted.  “Actually, ya’ owe me and I expect a lot more than one.”

            “Deal,” Leo said with a smile.

            The brothers made a quick escape from the roof top, two of them leaving behind all thoughts of Bishop, Karai, or anything except for each other.

**Author's Note:**

> This lovely art badge was created by Felhesznelenev (DA)  
> 


End file.
